


Golden Minefield

by sungabraverday



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-27
Updated: 2012-01-27
Packaged: 2017-11-13 01:10:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/497725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sungabraverday/pseuds/sungabraverday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rue knows she has to do something, but the Gamemakers have set a trap, and that's not to mention the Careers...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Golden Minefield

I move through the trees easily, heading toward the pond that I spotted the day before. It doesn’t take me long before I reach it, and slowly lower myself toward the ground. On the ground I’m vulnerable, so I take my time going down, and it’s just as well, because I hear something while I’m still well up in the air. I look down to spot Katniss blundering through the trees. She’s injured, and nearly stumbles into the pond before she notices that it’s there. She’s easing her wounds in the water, and purifying water to drink, so she’s well enough distracted that I don’t think she’ll notice if I climb back higher, where no one can catch me.

It’s over an hour later. I need to get down to get water soon, before I become dehydrated. My waterskin is empty, and has been for too long. But Katniss is in no hurry to move. Until she gives a start and pulls herself up out of the water, and runs into the forest.

I hear the Careers just moments after her, as they come trekking through the woods, branches cracking like gunshots under their heavy footsteps, and I understand why she moved. They pass right beneath my tree, but I’m on the other side of it from them, and I pull myself close to the trunk. They don’t seem to be looking up, so they pass me by unnoticed.

I give them time to move on, so that I’ll be able to get water, but they stop not far enough away, and start taunting Katniss, who sounds to be halfway up a tree herself.

I climb down the tree again somewhat, preparing myself to flee, to fight… or simply to get water. While I can hear them clearly enough, I can’t see them. I might be able to chance it. I hear one of them try to follow Katniss up her tree, branches cracking under their weight. By the others’ cheers I can tell that it’s Cato.

I decide to risk it, and climb down the tree silently. When the branches stop ten feet from the bottom, I wrap my arms around the trunk and shimmy down the rest of the way. If they had been further away I might have just dropped down, saving time, but there was too much risk of noise.

I creep down to the pond, and don’t dip my skin into the water until I’m on the other side of the pond from where Katniss had been tending her wounds. I can’t purify my water, but that’s one less thing that might contaminate it. I drink down most of the skin, and then fill it again. It should last me until tomorrow evening.

I hear a crashing sound, and bolt up the nearest climbable tree. I’m twenty feet up before I hear the Careers talking again - Katniss is still in the tree.

I decide to climb higher and make my way through the trees to see. It wouldn’t take too long, and there might be something important I can learn.

That’s when I spot it.

Large, gold, and deadly. Right now it’s hardly moving at all. It’s a tracker-jacker, and I have no intention of getting in its way. I glance around for wherever its nest might be. There’s one on the next tree over, a few branches below me. But there’s one high up the tree I’m in as well. I look around me, and realise that nearly every second tree has one in it.

The smoke must have kept them hiding, but now a few of the braver ones are venturing out, still sluggish. They creep along the edges of their nests, gold signalling me where I must not go. This whole section of the forest must be rigged for them.

Crashing continues from where the Careers have Katniss cornered in that tree. Is it a tracker-jacker tree? I don’t much want her to die, and she’s certainly better than the people chasing her. I feel obliged to warn her now. There’ll be no way to do that without going through the trees.

I look at the bushes around the pond. That one there - that’s good for the stings. I contemplate going down to get them. Time is ticking before night falls. I won’t be able to get to Katniss after dark, it’ll be too risky.

I go, moving quickly and quietly. I pick the leaves and put them all safely into my backpack. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to them if I do get stung. At least I know how to deal with these - none of the others will have that luxury. I smile, content that again I am better off than the others.

I cast my eye around for a good climbing tree that doesn’t have a nest on it. One side of the pond is clear of them, and I realise that if I go through the unnested trees as far as I can while moving closer, I’ll be safer. I climb with ease, and am in the next tree in minutes.

Half an hour later, the Careers have settled down. I can’t hear them, and so I’m forced to begin to brave the golden mine field.

It’s not too bad at first, with just one nest amongst the five trees that might bring me closer to Katniss. The numbers increase quickly, though, until there’s hardly a tree without a nest. I scale up and down the trees nimbly, moving on trees with nests if the nests are reliably far away.  
It’s almost dusk when I spot the Careers. I’ve misjudged their position somewhat, but by the way they’ve surrounded a single tree, I can tell exactly where Katniss is.

I leap closer, but move more slowly, so they won’t look up. I’m well out of their reach, but I still don’t want to chance it.

The tracker-jacker nests have begun to thin out again, making my movement less risky. The golden wasps have gone to bed though, and the sun is going too. I need to make it there, and quickly. I climb lower, where the branches are thicker and longer. I can make easier and quieter jumps here, but run the risk of being noticed.

It’s no more than half an hour before I’m two trees from Katniss. I scan her tree through the foliage, and my stomach falls. There, above her, is a nest. She hasn’t seen it yet, by the way she’s settled herself down to rest. I make the final leap, and watch her closely, trying to figure out how to tell her.

She spots me at dusk. I say not a word, but point at the nest above her. She looks at it, and I see comprehension on her face as she tries to think of a way out.

I settle in to rest then, with no real alternative. The anthem plays, and the night sky reveals no new dead.

I wake shortly before dawn. I can’t move yet, when there’s no light to see by, but I want to be well away before morning really takes hold. I’ve done what I told myself I needed to do, and to stay any longer than I have to risks discovery and death. I want neither.

That’s when I hear Katniss hissing my name. I peer through the branches to see her again. She points up and mimes sawing. Looking up, I can see the beginnings of the process.

There’s enough light to make a leap, and I know I’ll be safe on the next tree at least. I begin to move, packing what little I have. I do not want to get caught in whatever Katniss does with those golden terrors. And I don’t want to encounter any myself, so I make the first leap, and then more. As the morning light comes, I flee to safety.


End file.
